Improving STEM Persistence and Retention via Curricula, Centralization, Cohorts, and Collaboration

该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）计划资助，该计划为低收入，高成就的学生提供支持。 在五年的奖励期内，该项目旨在为攻读生物科学副学士或学士学位的学生提供156个奖学金。除了奖学金，学生将获得教师和同行指导，有针对性的咨询，并参加夏季研究的机会。每个合作机构还将重新设计学生经常挣扎的STEM课程，使课程强调以学生为中心的学习。总之，这些努力有可能增加每个合作机构获得STEM学位的毕业生数量，并为这些毕业生进入STEM劳动力市场或继续STEM深造做好准备。有限的研究社区学院保留出现在研究文献。 使用Tinto的整合模型，该项目侧重于减少学生的学术和社会融入生物科学的几个损耗点，并有助于减少STEM职业的保留。在社区学院层面，学术支持对于保持学生对生物学的兴趣至关重要。 高影响力的支持包括教师指导/咨询，旨在增加成功转移到生物学专业的北卡罗来纳州，夏洛特大学，和课外活动，如与教师和同伴导师从赔偿委员会的联系。一旦他们转移到北卡罗来纳州，夏洛特大学，奖学金学生将受益于学术上的共同入学的必修课程，包括有机化学和微积分，在生物专业一直在努力。为了支持他们的成功，这些课程的奖学金学生将有机会获得同行导师谁接受了有关如何解决转学生问题的培训。其他活动包括参与研究机会，这有可能增加学生融入校园和科学界。将通过混合方法设计调查每个方案组成部分的影响，以确定该组成部分对转学生融入UNCC社区和完成学位的影响。这项研究的重点是社会经济地位，性别和制度因素之间的相互作用，限制或支持融入STEM社区，并影响生物学专业的持久性。 这项研究的结果将有助于完善现有的学生融合理论，并为STEM中越来越多的交叉性工作做出贡献。这些研究结果的传播可能会为在联合国赔偿委员会和其他公立高等教育机构为转学生创建类似的基于学科的学习社区提供信息，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This project is funded by the NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, which provides support for low-income, high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need. During the five-year award period, this project aims to fund 156 scholarships for students who are pursuing associate's or bachelor's degrees in the biological sciences. In addition to the scholarships, students will receive faculty and peer mentoring, have access to targeted advising, and participate in summer research opportunities. Each of the partner institutions will also redesign STEM courses in which students often struggle, so that the courses emphasize student-centered learning. Together, these efforts have the potential to increase the number of students graduating with a STEM degree from each partner institution, and prepare these graduates to enter the STEM workforce or pursue further study in STEM. Limited studies of community college retention appear in the research literature. Using Tinto's model of integration, this project focuses on several points of attrition that reduce students' academic and social integration into the biological sciences and contribute to reduced retention in STEM careers. At the community college level, academic supports will be critical for maintaining student interest in biology. High impact supports include faculty mentoring/advising intended to increase successful transfer to the biology major at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and co-curricular activities such as contact with faculty and peer mentors from UNCC. Once they have transferred to University of North Carolina, Charlotte, scholarship students will benefit academically from co-enrolling in sections of required courses, including organic chemistry and calculus, in which biology majors have historically struggled. To support their success, scholarship students in these courses will have access to peer mentors who have received training about how to address transfer student issues. Other activities include involvement in research opportunities, which has the potential to increase student integration into their campus and scientific communities. The impact of each program component will be investigated via a mixed methods design, to determine the component's impact on integration of transfer students into the UNCC community and degree completion. This research focuses on the interplay between socioeconomic status, gender, and institutional factors that limit or support integration into STEM communities and impact persistence in the biology major. The results from this research will help to refine existing theories of student integration and contribute to a growing body of work on intersectionality in STEM. Dissemination of these findings may inform the creation of similar discipline-based learning communities for transfer students at UNCC and other public institutions of higher education with large transfer student populations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.